The continued motion offense is designed so the offense is in a constant state of motion. The continued motion offense is thought of as being a little outdated by people. The flex offense is a continued motion offense. Bobby Knight at Indiana ran a continued motion offense. The current offenses of open spaces and dribble drives has reduced the amount of continued motion offense coaches and teams are running in todays game. A continued motion offense is able to be executed and run forever until a player shoots.
In a continued motion offense, each player performs a movement or action depending on where the ball is located and how the ball is being passed. A true continued motion offense has the ability to move the ball back and forth across the floor with repeated actions taking place over and over again. It is a good offense for players with a little bit lower of a basketball IQ because of the repeated nature of the offense. It does not take a high basketball IQ or a great deal of basketball talent to run a good motion offense.
It also allows a team to hide bad offensive players by turning them into screeners or moving them in the offense to constantly be away from the ball. It also is a good offense if the team does not have one standout players. A motion offense can create a dynamic where the play of the defense dictates who is going to be shooting and scoring on offense.
A motion offense can be designed where each offensive player is going to be catching and dribbling and passing the ball during each possession. Having each player be in possession of the ball can lead to mismatches with the worst defender of the other team having to guard the ball almost every possession. Also by having each player handling the ball, it can create a team where every player is scoring about the same number of points every game. This can lead to every player scoring the most points during different games throughout the season. So a team may have 5 or 6 leading scorers in 5 or 6 straight games. This creates problems for opposing teams because they can struggle on how and who to defend. It also puts pressure on the worst defender because any breakdown or lazy play creates scoring chances for your offense.
A good motion offense requires a good disciplined team. Each player has to be disciplined in their movement. If one player does not move when and where they are supposed to, then the entire offense can come to a complete stop. However, a good motion offense is one of the hardest offenses to defend against a good disciplined team.
A motion offense should have counters to anything the defense could do. If the defense takes away one aspect of the offense then there should be a counter to that defensive play. For example if an offensive team runs a baseline flex screen and the defense is going underneath the screen to prevent the flex cut. Then an up cut can be ran to counter the defender going underneath. This would be where the cutter stops at the block at the screen and runs up the lane to the 3-point line instead of running across the lane to the other block. This simple adjustment cut makes the defender be under the flex screener and the screeners defender. This creates a natural new screen and gives the up cut a wide open shot at the elbow or above the elbow at the 3-point line. Also the offense can create a false sense of security by the defense and then change a cut or movement and catch the defense off guard. If the defense is guarding the pattern of the offense then a simple change of pattern creates open space.
I normally like to have 2 motion offenses during the season. One offense is the main offense of the program. Every player on every team in the program runs it. This gives continuity in the entire program. This also gives the ability to change little things in the continuity without having to teach a completely new offense.
The 2nd motion offense is more tailored to each team every season. This 2nd offense will sometimes become the main offense we use throughout the season. Since this 2nd offense is more tailored to each team then it can give us a better chance to utilize our strengths. But I always keep the 1st motion offense for program continuity and the 2nd offense for team strength.
The first motion offense does not take a lot of time to learn after the first season in the program because everybody is running it. The time is then spent on working on all the little counters and adjustments we can make. The 2nd offense does take time to learn because it is usually a completely new offense. These program continuity things help to reduce time wasted on things we know and allow me as a coach to focus on things that need work or are new.
